The Pink Panther
This is very different from what I expected, compared to the Steve Martin version. It’s quite raunchy, Closeau is an almost tragic figure, not a mere cuckhold.
The physical humour is present but there are other things going on. The bedroom scene is top notch.
The Phantom is a very successful cat burglar that seems to be always one step ahead of Inspector Closeau, bumbling and tripping everywhere. His wife demands so much but he always accedes to her demands, no matter how inconvenient and inappropriate. It is hard to believe he is that clever, if he can’t detect she is involved with the very thief he is trying to catch.
The ending twists the knife even further. Closeau is framed for stealing the diamond himself, by a collusion of the Princess and his own wife. That’s cold…
There’s also the shortcomings that come with the age: the (Indian) princess is played by Claudia Cardinale who doesn’t speak English and is dubbed; she is “seduced” by the Phantom by pumping her with champagne and tastefully declining to take advantage of her.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.